Police say they were forced to use Tasers on a man who became violent and combative inside the visitors center of the St. George Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The incident began Sunday afternoon when missionaries called police to the visitors center. Officers found a man inside yelling at his father, who was seated on a couch. The missionaries had asked the man to leave several times and people in the visitors center were becoming frightened, officer Craig Harding said.

"When the officers tried to get him to come outside, he said, 'I will not be forced to go outside. I am God and I will not be forced to leave,' " said Harding. As officers tried to escort the man outside, he grabbed onto a counter, police said. The man began flailing his arms wildly, asking the officers if they were going to draw their guns, Harding said.

"He took a fighting stance and they drew their Tasers," he said. Officers used the Tasers on him inside the visitors center and then took him outside to be handcuffed. Outside, police said the man continued to fight with police, reportedly yelling "go ahead and Tase me, it gives me energy."

Officers then used the Taser on the man again while trying to place him in a patrol car, but he broke free and tried to run away. Kicking and swinging his elbows, the man was loaded onto an ambulance and taken to Dixie Regional Medical Center, Harding said.

At the hospital, officers said the man was alternately calm and violent. At one point, Harding said the man broke free from his bed and ran down a hallway. He was finally backed into a corner and sedated, police said.

The man tested negative for drugs, and investigators believe he may have been suffering from some kind of mental disorder, Harding said.

Cody Calegory, 32, of Ivins, was booked into the Purgatory Jail on investigation of criminal trespass, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

This is the third such bizarre incident involving the LDS Church's St. George temple. In 1996, Lee Mackelprang used a heavy woodcutting maul to smash a 3-foot hole through a panel on the temple doors. He pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and was sentenced to probation. In 2001, John L. Reeves was naked when he broke through the large glass of the visitors center. Crawling over shards of glass and severely cutting his body, Reeves bled over the Christus statue before being taken to the hospital. He later pleaded no contest to criminal mischief and trespassing.

A church spokesman had no comment on this incident.

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